Thomas explains reasons for sacking Curle and why Cobblers made the decision now

Both the poor goal return and lack of chances created were the chief reasons behind Cobblers' decision to part company with Keith Curle this week, according to chairman Kelvin Thomas.

Curle's 28 months at Northampton came to an end on Wednesday afternoon when he paid the price for a poor run of form which had left Cobblers 23rd in Sky Bet League One.

Thomas and the club's hierarchy had growing concerns regarding Town's performances and in particular the struggle to score goals. They have managed only 20 all season, four fewer than any other team in League One.

"The lack of goals has obviously been discussed and it's something I talked to Keith about but it became a bit of a concern after we made some changes during January," said Thomas. "We don't make decisions based on one game or one aspect.

"We try and do our research and we look at the statistical information. We even looked at expected goals and things like that and it wasn't as if we were creating lots of chances and had strikers missing opportunities. It was a big concern that we needed to address.

"We played well at Lincoln but didn't get a result and then Blackpool was not a great performance. Accrington was better but again we didn't threaten their goal as much as maybe we would have wanted.

"Wigan was obviously not a good performance and we certainly didn't threaten their goal. We just felt, with 20 games to go, it was the right time to change it and freshen things up."

Some fans did question the timing of the decision given it was made just nine days after the transfer window closed. Town had backed Curle in January and sanctioned four loan signings, plus Lloyd Jones just before the window opened.

Thomas added: "Football is not an exact science and you can only go by results. You can't not make the decision because it's only a week after the window closed.

"I think it was the right thing to back Keith in the window and he said himself he got the targets he wanted but you can't predict the future.

"Is there an argument to say we could have brought in someone else in December? I'm not sure it's as easy as that so I'm not concerned with that view."

Thomas also wanted to give the new man - currently Jon Brady on a caretaker basis - time to keep Cobblers up. The last time they were relegated, then-manager Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was sacked with just five games left.

"I think there is a platform to stay up for sure and we had concerns we weren't going to get there if we didn't score goals and weren't creating chances," added Thomas.

"There's still 20 games and it does give us a chance. I think we probably learned a bit from the relegation previously because that was maybe left a little bit too late with Jimmy going and Dean (Austin) coming in.

"We wanted to give ourselves the best chance of staying up but we also wanted to give Keith a fair crack at it as well because he had done so well to get the club into the position we're in."